Yesterday’s announcement has confirmed what we have long suspected. That Theresa May would bow down to external pressures from big business and the foreign owners of Heathrow Airport to give expansion the green light – disregarding her own constituents and MPs in the process.

This is a green light that will see 800 homes and parts of the M25 demolished to make way for a development that even in its current form exceeds EU laws on emissions and is the cause of 28% …

Well, well. Boris is against Heathrow expansion, isn’t he? You have to then wonder why his office is investing millions in Heathrow airport. According to the Independent on Sunday, the Mayor’s office invested £3.54 million in the airport just two weeks ago. Liberal Democrat Assembly member Stephen Knight is quoted:

The GLA said that notwithstanding Mr Johnson’s trenchant views on Heathrow, it remained a suitable investment. But critics of the Mayor, who is ultimately responsible for GLA investments, said there was a clash between the mayor’s public position and his officials’ investment decisions.

Mr Knight said: “Only Boris Johnson would not be able to understand the total contradiction between publicly opposing a third Heathrow runway, whilst behind the scenes pouring millions of pounds of London taxpayer’s money into Heathrow bonds, which will help finance such an expansion.”

So, David Cameron is putting off the evil day when he has to make a decision about Heathrow. Liberal Democrat mayoral candidate Caroline Pidgeon has reiterated her opposition to a third runway:

Londoners will be angry at delay when the obvious conclusion is that expanding London airports will be too polluting and too disruptive. If the evidence doesn’t support a third runway then the answer must be “No!”
“Sadiq Khan is as flexible on airports as a pair of flip-flops: he used to support Heathrow, now its Gatwick. Who knows how long before he flops back to supporting Heathrow?

Zac Goldsmith is isolated from the Tories on this issue and powerless to intervene. They have saved his blushes today but the Tory plane is landing on a third runway at Heathrow for sure.

Only the Liberal Democrats are firmly opposed to airport expansion. There is underused runway capacity around London that we should exploit by improving train connectivity and speed to central London.

Congratulations to Tim Leunig — these days a senior adviser in the Department for Education, but until recently chief economist at the CentreForum think-tank — whose report Bigger and quieter: the right answer for aviation was the winner this week of the economic and financial category at Prospect Magazine’s Think Tank of the Year Awards 2013.

Tim’s report, published jointly by CentreForum and Policy Exchange, examined all the options for increasing airport capacity in the UK. It supports placing four runways immediately west of the current Heathrow site, doubling the existing capacity to 130 million passengers, and cementing it as Europe’s premier hub:

We argue that the first best solution is to build four new parallel runways, arranged in two sets of pairs, immediately to the west of the existing Heathrow airport. These would run above the M25, and Wraysbury reservoir. The Poyle industrial estate and a relatively limited amount of housing would need to be demolished. Clearly the problem with Heathrow at present is noise. Moving the runways west reduces noise over west London, since the planes will be higher over any given place. We will reinforce this noise reduction by banning the noisiest planes. This is not possible in the short run, but could be achieved by 2030, a plausible date for this airport to open.

In addition, narrow bodied planes will be required to land more steeply, as they do in London City. Again, this means that they are further up when they are above any particular place, reducing the amount of noise that reaches the ground. Finally there would be an absolute ban on night flights.

Interested in reading more? Here’s the link, and below’s the full document…

A recent Lib Dem voice poll asked ‘Do you support or oppose building a third runway at Heathrow airport?’ and it was not surprising to me, knowing the history of Liberal Democrat aviation policy, that 79% opposed this proposition. But this jumps the gun. Firstly, what is a hub airport and why is it valuable to the UK? Secondly, we need to understand if there is a problem to solve, and to define that problem. And then finally, what are the realistic options on the table that should be explored that will solve the problem.

Flying isn’t something most people do for fun but connections are good for business and prosperity. Thankfully the Committee on Climate Change says that aviation can expand without risking our ambitious climate change targets.

Hub airports are particularly important. They draw in passengers from a range of places, making flights to many destinations viable. The one flight from Wuhan to Europe – to Paris – relies on transfers at Charles de Gaulle. That flight gives Paris a head start in attracting the European HQs of firms from Wuhan. I want …

Lib Dem Voice polled our members-only forum recently to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Some 550 party members have responded, and we’re publishing the full results.

The role of the Liberal Democrats in ensuring that this Government does not agree to the expansion of Heathrow airport is emphasised by an article in yesterday’s Independent.

It says that a group of right wing Tories with links to the Chancellor are drawing up plans to offer compensation to local residents who would be affected by increased noise from a third runway at Heathrow.

The Coalition agreement has ruled out giving approval to a third runway during this parliament and the Conservatives opposed the move at the last election. But some senior party figures, including the Chancellor, George Osborne, are pressing

One of the first acts of the Coalition was to scrap plans for a third runway at Heathrow, whilst Boris Johnson’s plans for a new airport on an artifical island in the Thames Estuary have not been going anywhere much. So what next for the region’s airports?

While the Westminster Village is fixated by the Telegraph-hyped furore that Lib Dem ministers don’t always agree with every aspect of Coalition policy (shock, horror etc), the rest of the country is focused on a British obsession bigger even than the media’s predeliction for attaching the suffix ‘-gate’ to a noun: the weather.

Newspaper and TV pictures have been dominated by images of those hoping for a holiday getaway having their hopes dashed and their tempers frayed by the endless queues and chaos at Heathrow and for the Eurostar. …

2 Big Stories

Digital economy bill to be pushed through parliament next month

The controversial digital economy bill will be pushed through in the “wash-up” leading up to an election, after the government confirmed that it will receive its second reading in the Commons on 6 April – the same day that Gordon Brown is expected to seek Parliament’s dissolution.

Harriet Harman, the leader of the house, said today that the bill will get its second reading. But when questioned by Labour MPs Neil Gerrard and Tom Watson about the lack of time given to debate over controversial issues in the bill, she said only that “ministers are aware” of the strong feelings that the proposed legislation has engendered.

This is a very difficult and controversial issue. Although I voted to oppose the third runway, I am fully aware of the potential damage this might do to Britain’s international air travel. … So I expect this is an issue that will need to be revisited after the election.”

Local Lib Dem MP for Richmond Susan Kramer – who stepped down from the party’s shadow cabninet to focus her energies on the campaign against Heathrow’s expansion – has been quick …

I recently sent Geoff Hoon an email concerning his statement to the House of Commons on the third Heathrow runway. Whilst I was asking him a rather obscure and pedantic point relating to the language he used, the reply I got is rather revealing.

To that end , the Secretary of State reached his decision on the basis of a transparent and objective analysis of the evidence available as a result of the consultation that has taken place. He alone had the necessary knowledge of all the facts and issues that required consideration.

The government has won a vote over plans for Heathrow’s third runway – but saw its majority cut to just 19. … The Lib Dems supported the but the ministers argue scrapping the plans would seriously damage the economy. More than 50 Labour MPs had previously expressed concerns about the plans in other Commons motions but only 28 of them voted for the Conservative motion on Wednesday.

It’s an all-too familiar scenario – Labour MPs queue up to sign Early Day Motions criticising their own party, then use their threat to withold support as bartering chips. All of which would be commendable if they didn’t then cash their chits for ridiculously small concessions, such as ‘a pledge to initially cap flights on the new runway’ .

Lib Dem shadow secretary of state for transport Norman Baker, and local Richmond MP Susan Kramer were among those leading the campaign against the Heathrow expansion. Extracts from their Commons speeches below, with links to the full Hansard transcripts, follow:

What follows is very much not dissent in the ranks or any kind of support for a third runway at Heathrow – if for no other reason than I don’t want to give John McDonnell any excuse to start wielding the Mace again. I fully support and agree with the Lib Dem campaign being ably led by Susan Kramer and Norman Baker against blighting south-west London and surrounding areas with yet more noise, pollution and congestion.

But the Government has now announced its decision on a new runway and Terminal 6 and, while I hope we will be able to …

And today we can note that Richard Younger-Ross has become the 15th Lib Dem MP to become a ‘beneficial owner’ of a plot of land on the site of the proposed third runway at Heathrow airport, a Greenpeace move aimed at holding up the scheme in planning red-tape. As Susan says on the Greenpeace website,

At every stage the Government has ignored public opinion and shamelessly ignored the grave environmental risk of expanding Heathrow. At every stage, residents

Lib Dem opposition is wholehearted, embracing both those who believe the Heathrow business case is fundamentally flawed, as well as those who point to the environmental destruction that will result. Lib Dem shadow transport secretary Norman Baker and Susan – who’s leading the party’s campaign against the expansion – both responded to Mr Hoon’s Commons statement yesterday. The Hansard transcripts of their comments follows:

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